Diontae Johnson saw some crooked refereeing Sunday in Pittsburgh.
The Steelers receiver ripped the referees following a 20-10 loss to the Jaguars, alleging the zebras played favorites.
“They wanted them to win. They was calling … everything was in their favor. Every little call,” Johnson told reporters. “But it is what it is. I’m moving on from it. I’m ready for Thursday.”
The Jaguars and Steelers both had six penalties — and the Jaguars actually accrued 72 penalty yards to the Steelers’ 52 — but a lot of the frustration seems to stem from one particular call that Johnson believes affected the game.
Trailing 9-3 at the end of the first half, the Steelers seemingly converted a 56-yard field goal by Chris Boswell that would have cut the deficit to three points entering the half.
But the referees instead called offsides on Steelers guard Isaac Seumalo, which pushed the kick to 61 yards.
Boswell missed, which kept the deficit at six points after 30 minutes.
“I hadn’t seen that called in 17 years of standing on the sidelines,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said after the game. “Offsides, aligned offsides on a guard, on a field-goal protection. It didn’t matter what they said, I just have never seen that.”
Johnson, who caught eight balls for 85 yards, wasn’t quite as diplomatic.
“Refs were just killing us the whole game,” Johnson said. “I didn’t like the refs today. They must’ve got paid good today or something, but they blew — that field goal, that hurt us coming into the half. We needed that. … That field goal hurt us.”
It’s hard to tell how much that one call impacted the result, given the Jaguars won by 10.
It did, however, halt the Steelers’ momentum heading into halftime.
Johnson said the Steelers can’t dwell on the referees too long with an upcoming “Thursday Night Football” home game against the Titans.
“They was calling some stupid stuff. They should get fined for calling bad, making worse, terrible calls and stuff like that,” Johnson said. “That’s how pissed I am. They cost us the game. I don’t care what nobody say. They cost us the game.”
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